Basically ESF is pulling their players out of the Auction All-Kill OS2L following KeSPA's refusal to let their players partake in GSL4 qualifiers. This is kind of a big deal, because it means OGN is going to be screaming at KeSPA to clear up this shit - they've got a league starting on tuesday that is gonna be down 8 star players in their Ro16 if this isn't resolved quickly.

It's important to note that this is ESF's decision, not GOM's. ESF is most likely doing this out of support of GSL, but it's not a direct move by GOM to pull players out of the OS2L because GOM does not have any direct authority over the GSL players.

Translation courtesy of wwowz:

On August 24 2012 18:39 wwowz wrote:Here is the translation. Hope I'm not too late It was pretty hard to translate as the response from ESF was really formal and serious.

From ESF//

First of all, on behalf of E-sports federation, we are truly sad about what happened to KT's Woo Jeong Ho. We are truly sad to deliver this news around this time.

Yesterday, we received a statement from Kespa that the players will not participate in GSL season. This was a shocking and disappointing news to us.

We want to express our apology on the breach in partnership between Kespa and Esports Federation and on Kespa's decisions.

GOMTV devoted great amount of effort to succesfully globalize Korean E-sports ever since the release of Starcraft II 2 years ago.

Thanks to this, "E-sports Federation" was assembled to work side-by-side with GOMTV in the hope to carry Korean E-sports a step forward.

Considering the days of "GOMTV Classic", the decision by Kespa to not participate in GSL is not a simple issue and we are afraid that it might recur in the future considering the situation.

GOMTV provided Kespa players with various accommodations regarding the schedule and application process and yet the decision by Kespa seems to spoil the partnership between E-sports Federation and Kespa.

One of the reasons that Kespa will not participate in GSL was that there is a conflict in scheduling of the players. This is pretty hard to accept as GOMTV was able to accommodate many schedule conflicts without any problem for the past 2 years and this was also the case for Kespa players who participated in WCS and WCG.

E-Sports Federation does not want GSL to be removed from Korean E-sports and if it does, the effect of E-sports Federation players to the global E-sports will decrease for certain.

We think that it is mandatory for Kespa to work with us and show great games to our viewers. As such, we have contacted teams of E-sports Federation (Startale, LG-IM, Prime, MVP, NSH, TSL, FXO) regarding the players who are participating in OSL (Nestea, MVP, DRG, MKP, Parting, San) to make the following decision:

For the better future of Korean E-sports, we politely ask Kespa players to participate in GSL and until Kespa decides to allow their players to join GSL without any problem, we have decided to pull our players from OSL.

It is also difficult for us to make such harsh decisions but we think it is necessary to appeal the dignity of GOMTV and E-sports Federation.

Once again, we are truly apologetic regarding such news and we hope that Kespa would cooperate so that we can show amazing games to all of you.